English Listening Materials 5

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English Listening Materials
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Title : Mary Lyon, 1797-1849: A Leader in Women's Education in the 19th Century
Topic : Inspiring Woman
Source : Voice of America
www.voanews.com , ©VOANews.com
Re-upload by www.haarrr.wordpress.com, intended for the educational use of English
learners/students in Indonesia.
Mary Lyon, 1797-1849: A Leader in Women's Education in the 19th Century
SCRIPT :
FAITH LAPIDUS: Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. Every week
at this time, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States.
Today, Steve Ember and Shirley Griffith tell about Mary Lyon. She was a leader in
women's education in the nineteenth century.
…………………………….(music)…………………………..
STEVE EMBER: During the nineteenth century, women's education was not considered
important in the United States. Supporters of advanced education for women faced many
problems.
States did require each town to provide a school for children, but teachers often were
poorly prepared. Most young women were not able to continue on with their education in
private schools.
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If they did, they often were not taught much except the French language, how to sew
clothing, and music.
Mary Lyon felt that women's education was extremely important. Through her lifelong
work for education she became one of the most famous women in nineteenth century
America. She believed that women were teachers both in the home and in the classroom.
And, she believed that efforts to better educate young women also served God. If women
were better educated, she felt, they could teach in local schools throughout the United
States and in foreign countries.
…………………………….(music)…………………………..
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Mary Lyon was born in Buckland, Massachusetts, in seventeen
ninety-seven. Her father died when she was five years old. For Mary, hard work was a
way of life. But she later remembered with great pleasure her childhood years in the
home where she was born.
This is how she described what she could see from that house on a hill:
"The far-off mountains in all their grandeur, and the deep valleys, and widely extended
plains, and more than all, that little village below, containing only a very few white
houses, but more than those young eyes had ever seen."
STEVE EMBER: At the age of four, Mary began walking to the nearest school several
kilometers away. Later, she began spending three months at a time with friends and
relatives so she could attend other area schools. She helped clean and cook to pay for her
stay.
When Mary was thirteen, her mother remarried and moved to another town. Mary was
left to care for her older brother who worked on the family farm. He paid her a dollar a
week. She saved it to pay for her education. Mary's love of learning was so strong that
she worked and saved her small amount of pay so she could go to school for another few
months.
Mary began her first teaching job at a one-room local school teaching children for the
summer. She was seventeen years old. She was paid seventy-five cents a week. She also
was given meals and a place to live.
Mary Lyon was not a very successful teacher at first. She did not have much control over
her students. She always was ready to laugh with them. Yet she soon won their parents'
respect with her skills.
…………………………….(music)…………………………..
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SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: When Mary Lyon was twenty years old, she began a long period
of study and teaching. A new private school opened in the village of Ashfield,
Massachusetts. It was called Sanderson Academy.
Mary really wanted to attend. She sold book coverings she had made. And she used
everything she had saved from her pay as a teacher. This was enough for her to begin
attending Sanderson Academy.
At Sanderson, Mary began to study more difficult subjects. These included science,
history and Latin. A friend who went to school with Mary wrote of her "gaining
knowledge by handfuls." It is said that Mary memorized a complete book about the Latin
language in three days. Mary later wrote it was at Sanderson that she received the base of
her education.
STEVE EMBER: After a year at Sanderson Academy, Mary decided that her handwriting
was not good enough to be read clearly. She was a twenty-one-year-old woman. But she
went to the local public school and sat among the children so she could learn better
writing skills.
In eighteen twenty-one, Mary Lyon went to another private school where she was taught
by Reverend Joseph Emerson. Mary said he talked to women "as if they had brains." She
praised his equal treatment of men and women when it came to educating them.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Three years later, Mary Lyon opened a school for young women
in the village of Buckland. She called it the Buckland Female Seminary. Classes were
held in a room on the third floor of a house.
Mary's students praised her teaching. She proposed new ways of teaching, including
holding discussion groups where students exchange ideas.
Mary said it was while teaching at Buckland that she first thought of founding a private
school open to daughters of farmers and skilled workers. She wanted education, not
profits, to be the most important thing about the school. At that time, schools of higher
learning usually were supported by people interested in profits from their investment.
STEVE EMBER: In eighteen twenty-eight, Mary became sick with typhoid fever. When
her health improved, she decided to leave Buckland, the school she had started. She
joined a close friend, Zilpah Grant, who had begun another private school, Ipswich
Female Seminary.
At Ipswich, Mary taught and was responsible for one hundred thirty students. It was one
of the best schools at the time. But it lacked financial support. Mary said the lack of
support was because of "good men's fear of greatness in women." Zilpah Grant and Mary
Lyon urged that Ipswich be provided buildings so that the school might become
permanent. However, their appeal failed.
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…………………………….(music)…………………………..
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Mary resigned from Ipswich. She helped to organize another
private school for women, Wheaton Female Seminary in Norton, Massachusetts. It
opened in eighteen thirty-five.
She also began to raise money for her dream of a permanent, non-profit school for the
higher education of women. This school would own its own property. It would be
guided by an independent group of directors. Its finances would be the responsibility of
the directors, not of investors seeking profit. The school would not depend on any one
person to continue. And, the students would share in cleaning and cooking to keep costs
down.
STEVE EMBER: Mary Lyon got a committee of advisers to help her in planning and
building the school. She collected the first thousand dollars for the school from women
in and around the town of Ipswich. At one point, she even lent the committee some of
her own money. She did not earn any money until she became head of the new school.
Mary Lyon opened Mount Holyoke Seminary for Women in eighteen thirty-seven. It was
in the town of South Hadley, Massachusetts. She had raised more than twelve thousand
dollars. It was enough to build a five-story building.
Four teachers and the first class of eighty young women lived and studied in the building
when the school opened. By the next year, the number of students had increased to one
hundred sixteen. Mary knew the importance of what had been established -- the first
independent school for the higher education of women.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The school continued to grow. More students began to attend.
The size of the building was increased. And, all of the students were required to study for
four years instead of three.
Mary Lyon was head of the school for almost twelve years. She died in eighteen
forty-nine. She was fifty-two years old.
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She left behind a school of higher education for women. It had no debt. And it had
support for the future provided by thousands of dollars in gifts.
In eighteen ninety-three, under a state law, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary became a
college. Mount Holyoke College was the first college to offer women the same kind of
education as was offered to men.
STEVE EMBER: People who have studied Mary Lyon say she was not fighting a battle
of equality between men and women. Yet she knew she wanted more for women.
Her efforts led to the spread of higher education for women in the United States.
Historians say she was the strongest influence on the education of American young
people during the middle of the nineteenth century. Her influence lasted as the many
students from Mary Lyon's schools went out to teach others.
…………………………….(music)…………………………..
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian.
I'm Shirley Griffith.
STEVE EMBER: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this same time for
another People in American program on the Voice of America.
*****
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